Roseola take two, first family vacation, mommy's week off, milestones

Lots of update!

Brooklyn came down with a high fever the last week of June. I was really nervous because we had our big family vacation planned. So she had a high fever Sunday night, all day Monday and all day Tuesday (Aunt Peggy came to the rescue and watched Brooklyn after literally returning the day before after she'd been out of the country for a month. Thank God for family!) I was wondering if she had Roseola since it sounded suspiciously just like Bailey's experience. But Wednesday morning her fever was gone (high of 101.8)  so our trip for Thursday was back on.

We've been planning a trip with friends to their cabin in upstate NY for a while. One of Darren's high school friends lives in Syracuse (and both him and his wife are Newhouse grads, ironic right? Note: This is where I went to undergrad for those who don't know.) and has a cabin 2 hours north in upcountry NY. They have a 16 month old daughter. His other good friends live in DC and have a 15 month old. So we all ventured to this cabin for Fourth of July for a baby extravaganza vacation.

How cute are these outfits?! From future Aunt Amanda.

Roseola rash.

Anyway, I've been super nervous about the trip. The plan was to drive six hours to Syracuse, spend the night and then drive the two additional hours to the cabin the next day, and repeat the Syracuse overnight on the way back. So a six hour drive with two one year olds felt, well, daunting. Impossible. Ridiculous. Foolish. BUT it went so well! The girls did fine. We left early morning after breakfast and packing up the van, around 9:30. Girls slept for a few hours, we stopped at a rest stop for lunch. Of course I had all kinds of delicious fruit cut up and read to go for the entire trip, plus a
turkey hot dog and other delicious lunch food all packed in containers. I left them at home, sigh. But I ordered a bowl from Mo's Southwest Grill and they ate awesome. Mom fail for healthy meal. Oh well. Then I took Brooklyn into the bathroom to change her and noticed her Roseola rash. I KNEW IT. Anyway, now they've both had Roseola so we are done with that.

So we got back in the van after lunch. Darren ran in and asked the coffee shop to put hot water in a bucket so we could warm the bottles. The girls had their bottles (oh and did I mention that they learned to FINALLY hold their own bottles that morning! I bought avent handles at Target and they can now hold their own bottles. I know most kids do this between 5 to 7 months so 13 month olds holding their own bottles is NOT impressive, but we are pretty pumped about it.) I stayed in the back sitting between the girls for the rest of the trip rotating in new toys and what not. We also bought DVD players for the car so I had Little Mermaid playing. They did great. I gave them some snacks as we got closer and only a few minor outbursts here and there.

The trip was so much fun. I was curious how it would go (I mean, that many young kids? Could be a disaster.) but it wasn't. It was very baby focused during the day (obviously) but all the kids slept pretty good (more or less) especially considering we were in an open room (that's right, four babies sleeping in an open loft in the upstairs of the cabin). At night, we had some beers, some laughs, played Cards Against Humanity, had a fire, ate like kings, etc.

The highlight of the trip for me was seeing how much fun our girls had playing in the sand and in the lake. They LOVED it. We bought floats at Target for them and they had a blast kicking their legs and floating around.

Caught on camera - first time standing without assistance.

 And, DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONE, Brooklyn stood up all by herself without holding onto anything while playing in the shallow water. (Which, she's been doing non-stop since then. We will have a walker soon, OH MY!) It was also really cool seeing all the kids together. Since the other girls are a few months ahead, they are walking and talking (some) so we heard "Hi" (emphasis on "h"), "done,""baby," etc all weekend.

Our drive back was also great. Again, there is always SOMETHING you forget, so this time I left their bottles (with the sacred HANDLES) in the fridge. But we made it home around five (with an emergency stop at Target for new
handles) and gave them a bottle then. I took this entire week off since our day care is closed (Anne takes vacation this week) so Tuesday we took them to the Rain Forest zoo exhibit (it was pouring rain all day) AND I took them to Target for their first experience sitting in those bucket seats. Obviously they loved shopping at Target. Who doesn't?

In other news, Bailey woke up every day on the trip between 4:30 am and 5:30 am, sigh. However, she slept today till 6:15 without waking up once! A miracle!

I have two more days off this week to play stay at home mommy. Making the most of it. In fact I am drinking wine right now!